Grassley: OLC Opinion On Recess Appointments 'Unconvincing'

Sen. Chuck Grassley said Thursday that the DOJ Office of Legal Counsel memo allowing President Barack Obama to make recess appointments when the Senate is technically in “pro-forma” session is “unconvincing.”

“Its conclusion is at odds with the text of the Constitution and the administration’s own previous statements,” Grassley said in a statement. “It fundamentally alters the careful separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches that the framers crafted in the Constitution. It relies on no Supreme Court decision and many conclusions are unsupported in law or the Constitution. It recognizes that the courts might well disagree. And it flies in the face of more than 90 years of historical practice. Taken together with a laundry list of other assertions of the power to act without Congress, this is clearly an escalation in a pattern of contempt for the elected representatives of the American people. The Senate will need to take action to check and balance President Obama’s blatant attempt to circumvent the Senate and the Constitution, a claim of presidential power that the Bush Administration refused to make.”